Persona ND
by jas9824
Summary: Nanako Dojima is now sixteen years old, harboring dark and traumatic memories that she still doesn't understand. But when an mysterious string of incidents occur, Nanako and her friends find themselves in a battle to protect the town from an old threat while having questions answered about the dark memories of her past. And what does her "big bro" Yu have to do with this?
1. Prologue

**A/N: My very first attempt for a fanfiction! Because of that, this could be pretty bad, so bear with me! If you have any ideas how I can improve, please leave a review! Any advice will be glady taken! R** **egrading the update schedule of this fiction, don't expect me to pump these out very fast, as I do have school and other things to juggle, so my updates may be very, very slow.**

 **And lastly, this concept was inspired by a previous fanfic called Persona 4 FES. I thoroughly enjoyed the idea of putting Nanako as the protag, and I was sad that the author never finished it, so here I am, writing this fanfic with Nanako as the protag, though in this chapter, she won't make an appearance just yet!**

 **EDIT: Changed the original date because it was on a Sunday, and changed the date and location format.**

 **Enjoy this chapter!**

 **Prologue: Calm before the storm**

Monday, May 3, 2021 Office 904. Tokyo Prosecutor's Office, Tokyo

Rain plattered intensely against the rectangular glass window that displayed the pitch black and cloud covered night sky over the bright and vibrant lights of the bustling city. Below, cars zoomed along the labyrinth of roads squished in between the many towers that populated the city. In the room, artificial light shone from a single, domed light on the ceiling. It was a fairly large and spacious room, with a large oak bookshelf filled with thick law books of various colours on one of the light brown walls of the room. To the right was two large, grey coloured metal file cabinets that were almost the same height as the wooden bookshelf, full of secure files concerning many crimes, solved or unsolved. They had five drawers each, each secured with a lock that could only be opened by a touch keypad on a small square computer display placed on the top right corner of the drawer. Leaning against the cabinets was a tall wooden ladder, used for the convenience reaching the top levels of the bookshelf. In front of the bookshelves was a large, mahogany desk, with a red and white striped rug underneath. Behind the desk was a black leather swivel car, which the owner of the office leaned back on, studying a case file intensely.

He was a tall, slender young man, probably in his mid to late twenties, with a distinctive bow haircut of short, grey hair. His face was pale and smooth, with a sharp, triangular like chin clean of stubble. Over his sharp, grey eyes, he wore black framed rectangular glasses. On his body, he wore a simple black suit, but left his suit jacket unbuttoned, revealing a white dress shirt with a black tie underneath. Pinned to the right lapel of his suit jacket was a prosecutor badge, indicating his role as a prosecutor for the Tokyo Prosecutor's office.

Sighing, the man dropped his focus from the case file describing the crime was assigned to investigate and prosecute and glanced over his desk, feeling tired from reading over all the documents and evidence related to the case. Ever since he passed the bar and joined the prosecutor's office last February, he has been increasingly been getting assigned more and more cases to investigate and prosecute, and has been solving and winning most of them, the few which he lost were ones which he conceded that the defendant was surely not guilty. Almost any time he investigated a crime, he relentlessly pursued the truth, no matter how intricate or complex the crime was, or how little initial evidence there was to incriminate the true culprit. He didn't let the opinions of the media or his superiors influence him in his decisions. This passionate dedication was the reason why, even though he has been a prosecutor for only fourteen months, he was labelled as one of the top rising prosecutors in the prosecutor's office. No one knew where this passion came from, but some would say that it was the result of the guidance and teachings of his mentor, a veteran prosecutor with nine years of experience despite his young age of twenty nine years old. His mentor would claim though that this passion was there ever since he became a prosecutor, and he only refined it into the ruthless, efficient prosecutor by the name of Yu Narukami.

He undoubtedly loved his job with a burning passion, but currently was desperate for a break to rest his mind. His previous case, concluded only a week ago, was an impossibly complex one, taking over two months of careful investigating to implicate the evasive culprit, and another month to break down his stubborn lawyer and get the defendant the guilty verdict he deserved. It was a tiring and stressful experience, and now he had another case to deal with, despite it being a fairly simple one. He couldn't help feeling irritated.

Suddenly, the ringtone of Yu's phone began playing, breaking the thoughts of the young prosecutor. Feeling into his right pocket of his black pants, he pulled out the vibrating smartphone and looked at the screen. He smiled when he saw the face of his best friend, Yosuke. He pressed the green button on the screen and said, "Hey, Yosuke."

"Hey, partner. How's it going, man? You doing good?" replied the voice on the phone.

"Yeah. I'm doing good. How about you? Make any progress with your 'lover', bro? Been ten years and still haven't made your move?" Yu taunted.

"S-s-s-shut up, Yu! Damn it, can't I tell you my deepest feelings and not have you taunt me about it every time?!" Yosuke stuttered, obviously flustered

"Ok, ok" Yu said reassuringly, "But on a serious note, why did you call me? I take it that this isn't a social call."

"Wow, you can tell? Damn, is there nothing you can't figure out? Dude, you're literally a genius!" Yosuke praised, with a hint of jealousy, "But yeah, I did call you for a reason, and it's pretty serious. You see… Marie-chan's…. missing"

"Missing? What do you mean?" Yu said, as thunder boomed in the background.

"Well, we were going to eat together at Aiya's two nights ago, so me and Chie went to her house to pick her up. But when we got there, her lights were off and she didn't answer the door or her phone. We didn't think of it much then, we just thought she went out somewhere and forgot to tell us and put her phone on silent, so we went back to AIya's without her."

"But then yesterday, when I was at my desk at the police station, I got a call from the weather station. Apparently, Marie-chan didn't show up for work that day without calling in sick, so they decided to call me. That made me feel suspicious, so I called up Naoto-kun and decided to investigate."

"We went around the town for the whole day, questioning anyone passing by if they saw anyone like her. No one saw anything. We searched her house, but, damn it, there was no trace of any struggles or break and entry or any damn thing that could point to a kidnapping. All her belongings were still there and her car was still in the garage, so she couldn't have left the town on a trip. It was almost like…she literally vanished in thin air"

"That...sounds concerning", Yu responded to the news, with a hint of worry and panic sneaking behind his usually calm demeanor. Regaining his composure, he said. "Well, we can't make any conclusions yet. Maybe it's not as bad as it seems, I mean, she is a minor goddess, she could just be sick of this world and decided to take a break."

"Maybe you're right", Yosuke sighed with relief, "But that's not the only bad news I have to tell you. I been hearing rumors that the Midnight Channel is back on."

"What?!" Yu exclaimed, losing his composure as he was shocked with the news. _The Midnight Channel is back on? How?! We got rid of the cause of that years ago! How could it be back on?_

"Well, it's just a rumor I heard from one teenager that was at the station….but…. if it's true…. this could be a serious problem. Plus, Teddie being acting weird when he passes by any TV. He says he senses weird vibes, an old, powerful presence, something very familiar but dangerous."

 _It can't be…._ Yu thought.

"That's why we decided we're going in. We need to figure the root of the problem, and most likely it's connected to the other world. Everything that been happening is can't just be a coincidence. But we're not going in without you. You're our leader, after all"

"I agree, that seems what we need to do, but… I won't be able to come to Inaba for a couple of weeks?"

"Huh? Why not?" Yosuke inquired.

"I got assigned a case today. Should be a quick one but it'll still take me at least two weeks to wrap up. After that, I'll request some time off and head right over. I'll also call Uncle Dojima to let him know." Yu explained. "Sorry about that."

"Ok, got it. No worries, partner, it's your job. We'll be waiting."

"Thanks, Yosuke. I know I can count on you" Yu replied as he ended the call.

With his mind rested, Yu dropped the case file he was studying onto his desk, and stood up from his chair. He walked over to the file cabinets behind his desk and typed in a code on the keypad of one of them, unlocking it in the process. He then opened the cabinet and reached to the very back of the drawer, pulling out a file with the label "JN-2".

Walking back to his desk, he slowly digested the conversation he had with Yosuke minutes ago. The Inaba he fought to protect many years ago in his youth was possibly in danger once again by a threat only he and his friends could fight. And if Inaba was in danger, that meant _they_ were in danger, especially _her_.

He looked over to a framed picture on the corner of his desk. It was taken a year ago in February, right after he had passed the bar. He had returned to Inaba to celebrate this accomplishment, and took this picture with his "family". He focused on the teenaged girl with long, brown hair and an innocent angelic face, no different from the face that greeted him at home for a year ten years ago.

 _This time, I won't lose you. You'll be safe this time._


	2. Chapter 1

**AN:** **Hello! I know it's been almost a month since I last updated this story, but a combination of writer's block and schoolwork delayed the writing for me by a couple weeks. But now Chapter's 1 here, so you can enjoy!**

 **Now, I want to clear up some things before you begin this chapter. This story is considered all Persona 4 games canon, as such, it will contain major spoilers for P4 Golden, and maybe some minor spoilers for P4A, P4AU, and P4 Dancing All Night, as I will reference to this games. Sometimes they won't be too story based, so you won't need to know those stories, but if they do, I'll let you know.**

 **In this chapter, Nanako is finally introduced with some new characters! Now, I don't have any romantic ships planned for this fanfic, but if you want, I can definitely add some if it fits my vision of the characters. I already have some in mind, but let me know any ideas for romances.**

 **And as always, please review as I am still improving my writing. All reviews, good or bad, are greatly appreciated!**

 **Chapter 1: All Grown Up**

* * *

Wednesday, May 19, 2021, Dojima Residence, Inaba

"BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!...", the alarm clock blared noisily from the table beside the futon laid against the shaggy carpet floor of the small bedroom. Ruffling from inside the confines of the soft, green blankets, Nanako Dojima groaned and rolled over lazily to stare with half opened eyes at the digital red numbers of the alarm clock displaying 6:30. Exhaling with great annoyance of the end of her rest, she pulled herself up like a sloth and swatted at the snooze button, silencing the barrage of beeps.

 _Time to wake up already?_ she thought, still half-asleep _Oh well, time to get ready for school then. It's a new day._

Dragging herself out of her room and across the hallway to the bathroom, she began preparing herself for the upcoming day at school. She showered while singing with a sweet but well tuned voice while scrubing up her long, loose brown hair, the hot water and steam fully waking her up. Afterwards, she dried herself up with soft white towels and brushed her hair so that it fell at her shoulders in long straight strands in almost uniform fashion. After brushing her teeth and all the other essentials for a teenaged girl to get ready in the morning, she crossed the hallway to return to her room. Walking over to a painted white wooden dresser by her futon, she pulled open the top drawer and grabbed standard Yasogami High girls summer uniform, a simple black checkered skirt combined with a white shirt tied together by a yellow sailor-style tie. She stood in front of a person-size mirror, and got dressed. After she finished adjusting last details, she took a moment to look at herself, observing the image of the girl reflected on the mirror.

The girl was at an average height, with a thin but attractive frame that was a magnet for eager boys eyes. Her face was extremely pretty, comparable to an angel, with her round brown eyes showing both the sweet and friendly girl on the outside and the fierce determination and mental strength shown only to a select few. It was one of the reasons why so many boys crushed on her, and the reason why none had succeeded. That, and the fact that no one had the courage to ask out a girl who was the daughter of the Chief Detective of the Inaba PD, famous for breaking down master criminals with his interrogations.

Turning away from the mirror, she glanced at her alarm clock before grabbing her books off her study desk, confirming that she had over an hour to rush on to school. Descending down the carpet laden stairs, she entered the small kitchen that doubled as their dining room. Sitting at the brown wooden table reading a newspaper was her father, Ryotaro Dojima, with a plain white clay mug with black steaming coffee in it right by him. Alerted by the noise of Nanako coming down the stairs, he turned toward her and said, "Good morning, Nanako."

"Morning, Dad." Nanako replied as she walked over to the grey metal pot sitting on the old-looking stove and poured herself a cup of coffee, adding a packet of cream and sugar. "Did you sleep well?", turning her head to look at her middle aged father sitting at the dining table.

"Yeah, I did." Dojima grumbled in a sleepy tone as he sipped his coffee, glancing up from the newspaper "You?"

"Yeah, me too." Nanako responded as she sat down in a seat opposite to her father, placing her own mug of coffee down on the table.

The two had a simple conversation for a couple minutes, discussing topics like the weather, Nanako's studies and Dojima's work. She heard about the details regrading Marie-san's search and how it was not making a single inch of progress, while Dojima heard the news that exam scores would be posted soon. It was a fun, light hearted conversation between father and daughter, representing the tight bond formed between the two, but it changed moods dramatically when Dojima asked if she had one of "those" dreams again.

"No, Dad." Nanako answered with slight irritation, gripping the mug a bit tighter, "You don't need to worry, I got over that a long time ago, Dad." She paused, "It doesn't scare me anymore, I'm completely fine."

Dojima's brow furrowed with concern. Staring deeply into his daughter's eyes, he said "But, what happened to you happened at a very young age. Seven years old, to be exact. Something that shocking can easily traumatize a child and leave mental scars that las-"

"Dad!" Nanako moaned with anger rising in her voice, "I told you, I'm fine now. The psychiatrist really helped me when it still scared me in the past, but it doesn't scare me now. You don't have to worry. I'm sixteen!"

Dojima lingered on this point, his fatherly protective instincts urging him to push on, but his perception telling of his daughter's emotions him to drop the argument, warning him any further prodding could lead to a screaming match. And at seven o'clock in the morning, no one needed that. He sighed and leant back on his chair, admitting defeat. "Oh well", he conceded. "If that's true, then there's no point in worrying."

An awkward silence hung over the table after that conversation, with Nanako and Dojima both sipping their coffees, not saying a word. After several minutes, Dojima put down the newspaper he was reading and glanced at the watch on his left wrist. Realizing what time it was, he said, "Looks like it's time for me to head down to the station. And it's probably time for you to start preparing breakfast too. You don't have much time till school starts." Standing up from his chair, he folded his newspaper and began walking towards the sink to dispose of his now lukewarm coffee.

Nanako glanced at her cellphone at that statement and realized it was true, as the time was 7:13. Since it took about fifteen to twenty minutes to walk from her house to her high school, that gave her at most about thirty minutes to cook and eat breakfast. She stood up quickly from her chair and walked over to the fridge and began taking out the necessary things she'll need for breakfast.

By then, Dojima had completed his disposal of his coffee and mug in the sink and was walking out of the kitchen. As he passed the busy Nanako who was searching through the fridge, he leaned back and said, "Oh, Nanako?"

"Yes, Dad?"

"I forgot to mention this before, but when I was out helping out an investigation into a car crash near the shopping district, I met one of your teachers, Mr. Soruda. He told me that your class would be getting some new transfer students."

"Transfer students? I never heard of that before. When and how many?"

"Apparently, their first classes are tomorrow, and I heard there's two of them. Both from the city, though one's from Okina."

"Oh, that's nice to know! Hopefully, they'll be a nice bunch." Nanako exclaimed.

"Yea, yea, I hope so too." Dojima chuckled. "Anyway, gotta go. Have a good day at school, Nanako"

"You too, Dad. Have a good time at work!" Nanako yelled happily as she placed the frying pan on the stove. But before she heard the sliding of the front door, she heard the distinctive ringtone for her father's phone and the subsequent "Hello?" from her father. As she poured oil cleany all over the black metal pan and turned the dial to turn up the heat, she overheard the conversation her father was having with his caller.

"So you're coming tonight? How late?"

"THAT late? Isn't it dangerous to drive on the highway at that time of the night? Why are you driving so late, anyway?"

"Oh, I see. Work has you busy too. Is that why you're coming back? For a break?"

"Oh, ok! That's great! Well, I have to hang up now, I got to hurry to work, but call me later if you need me."

"Yeah, I'll see you tonight." Then, there was silence except for the sliding and shutting of the front door, indicating that Dojima has left the house, leaving Nanako alone to ponder about the conversation she just overheard.

 _Who was Dad talking to?_ she thought as she delicately cracked an egg open and dumped its contents onto the heated frying pan.

* * *

Wednesday, May 19, 2021, Yu's Apartment, Tokyo

"Ok, then. Have a good day, Uncle."

"Yeah, I'll see you tonight."

After hearing his uncle's reply, he moved his cell phone from his ear and tapped the red button on the touch screen to end the call. Pocketing the phone in his simple black dress pants, he stood up from the white table with plates holding the remnants of his now-finished breakfast, nothing but a few stray crumbs and bits of cooked egg and sausage. He gathered the dirty dishes and a light blue mug scattered with tiny droplets of coffee off the table with his left hand and balanced them expertly on his right palm, being careful to ensure that none of them fell and shattered on the smooth white tiled floor of the room that doubled as his kitchen and his dining room.

Dishes in hand, he traversed carefully through the kitchen towards the sink, swaying himself slightly to the left and right ever so often to maintain balance of the mountain of fragile dishes, dumping the dirty plates, mug and silverware delicately but quickly into the stainless steel sink. With that task now completed, he walked away from the sink and left the kitchen. He went down a carpeted hallway and entered the farthest room on his left side, the room which was his home office, where he worked on his many cases away from the main prosecutors offices in Downtown Tokyo.

It was a small square room, with only a small rectangular window on the wall to the right of the door. In front of the window was a small work desk, flanked by two medium-height beige bookshelves, holding an assortment of law books.

Walking towards his desk, he sat down in the black swivel chair that was in front of his desk and began sorting through the piles of paper that littered his desk, all which were important documents related to the case he was currently prosecuting, which he was almost 100% confident would surely end today with a guilty verdict. It was more difficult to put a close to the case then he originally anticipated, with the opposing attorney putting up an impassioned defense of his client, pressing every evidence, logical point, and witness he presented against the defendant to the bare bones, and presenting some useful witnesses and evidence.

Eventually, he was able to use all the evidence and witnesses gathered by both sides to provide a logical explanation of the truth, painting the defendant as the culprit, without a single objection from the defense. He was confident in what he deduced was the truth. Closing arguments were today, so Yu wanted to do a final overview of every point of the case to formulate a powerful closing argument to finally put this case to rest, and have a verdict declared. He was desperate for the case to end, as the mental strain of the long investigation and trial of his previous case and the unexpected difficulties of his current one has placed a fair amount of stress of Yu. He needed a breather, a chance to destress, and the opportunity lay after the conclusion of this case, where he successfully obtained a month leave to spend in Inaba, with his friends, and _her_ , the one he loved with all his heart. He instinctively touched his left chest pocket of his suit jacket when the thought of her entered his mind, feeling the symbol of their love of a decade placed in there.

After reviewing briefly the case, he filed all the documents neatly into a single yellow case file and packed it into his leather briefcase. He slouched in his chair and glanced at his watch. 8:11. He had until 10 until the trial started and he was advised by his mentor to arrive an half hour early. Knowing that the courthouse was thirty minutes away from his house in the dense Tokyo traffic, he saw that he had at least forty minutes to relax before the trial. Grabbing his phone from his pocket, he dialed and called Yosuke.

"Hello? Detective Hanamura speaking." Yosuke said professionally when he answered the call.

"Yosuke? It's me, Yu." Yu responded.

"Yo! What's up, partner? How's work treating you, man? Ready to come today? Everyone's been dying to see you!" Yosuke said happily as he reailzed who called him.

"Yea, I'll be coming late tonight after I wrap up this case I'm working on. Though I won't be able to see you and the gang until tomorrow, because I won't be arriving until 11 or 12 at night."

"Really? That late? Damn, why are you coming so late?" Yosuke asked, with a hint of concern for his best friend of ten years.

"Typical procedure for a prosecutor after concluding a case. The closing arguments and the verdict should be declared by 4 at the latest, but I'll have to spend an hour or two finalizing paperwork and sorting them all into a permanent case file for the archives at the prosecutor's office. A pain in ass, but something that has to be done. I mean, unless I want to lose my job." Yu explained, slouching further back on his chair, "By the time I get home, it'll be 7, and the earliest I can leave is by 8. A drive to Tokyo to Inaba is on average three hours, so with basic math that even you can comprend, I'll arrive around 11ish, maybe even 12."

"Oh, that sucks. Well, it's your job, man…...Hey! That was uncalled for! Damn it, Yu, you jackass!" Yosuke complained as he realized the hidden insult.

Yu laughed. "Oh, you know I don't mean it, Yosuke."

"Damn you!"

Yu laughed even more, in manner similar to his girlfriend, before calming down. Returning to a serious tone, Yu said while pushing up the bridge of his glasses, "On a more serious note, how is the search for Marie-chan going, Yosuke? Any progress since the last time I called you?"

The usual happy tone Yosuke spoke with his friends was replaced with a more somber and serious tone reserved for the detective in him, "No", he admitted, "There hasn't been any progress since you called me two days ago. We had search teams scour the entirety of the Inaba area and the surrounding country with no avail. We questioned basically every citizen in Inaba for details on her disappearance. Me and Naoto-kun investigated every last lead we could on Marie's case, searched basically every nook and cranny in her house, even inquired with neighbouring police districts for information. No dice." Yosuke left out an audible huff of frustration. "There hasn't been a single goddamn trace of her since the first of the month, even after we filed that missing persons report. I don't want to consider it, but the possibility of the worst case scenario is very much possible at this point."

Dread filled Yu at the thought of such a possibility. He has been worrying non stop about Marie-chan ever since she disappeared, so the chance that harm of the worst degree came to her sent shivers down his spine like he was in subarctic temperatures. "Do you think Marie-chan...was..murdered?" he proposed.

"I don't want to consider say it or make conclusions at this point, but an awful lot of evidence points to it." Yosuke responded "Though… a lot of evidence points against it, unless the killer can somehow dispose of literally every trace of her from this world"

"That's true…" Yu conceded, "But then, there's the other issue that was brought up. The Midnight Channel reairing. The weird sensations from the TV world detected by Teddie. All this, with Marie-chan disappearance, could mean something supernatural, something beyond the police's power. Something..we dealt with before, in THAT world."

"Oh yeah.. The TV world and the Midnight Channel…Yeah, parnter, I got some good news regarding that, I kinda forgot to tell you…" Yosuke interjected.

"What's the news?" Yu asked, his eyes lighting up behind his glasses.

"It rained a couple times during the middle of May, so we decided to check the Midnight Channel and see if the rumors were true. But the thing is, the channel never came on. For either of us. And we tried this several nights, and all times it didn't come on. So that's basically proves that the rumor is just a rumor. Probably started by some people who just wanted to stir up trouble."

"That's great." Yu commented, a smile rising on his face, "One less thing to worry about. But what about those things detected by Teddie? Surely THAT's concerning."

"Oh, and about that. A few days after I called you to tell you about that, Teddie stopped detecting those weird presences by TVs. We asked him why, and he answered in typical Teddie style 'I dunno'" Yosuke said, "We still don't know what those presences were he detected, but I don't think it's worth investigating or going into the TV world for. We..may have jumped the gun on that."

"Yeah, that's true. I did too" Yu agreed, "I was terrified that the Shadows were back and Inaba was in danger once again. Everything that was happening at the same time, and it shocked me and I overreacted. But I now I know some of things aren't true anymore, it's lessened my worries. Not completely though."

"Yeah, there's still Marie's disappearance. But, hopefully, it's connected to THIS world, not THAT world." Yosuke said, "Other than that, all we can do now is continue our search and hope for the best, but I'm worrying that the worst-case scenario is true."

"I share the same worries too, Yosuke. But all we can do is hope. For now."

"Yep, that's all we can do.", Yosuke sighed, with hints of dejection popping through his voice. "Anyway, you're still coming over, right? You can help us with the search for Marie, and hang out with us for a while. Everyone is here in Inaba for some reason. Naoto's here to help out with the search, Rise's just wrapped up filming a movie she starred in and dropped in two weeks ago, and there's me, Chie, your oh-so precious Yukiko, and Kanji. And Teddie too, but that bear just returned back to his world yesterday without a word. With the whole gang here, we can have some fun together for once."

"That's definitely exciting. The entire Investigation Team reunited in Inaba ten years after the case was solved. It's almost like it was meant to happen" Yu replied with an excited tone, but still retaining his composure.

"Uh huh.. it like it was des-" Yosuke joked before being interrupted by what appeared to be a man yelling. Yosuke quickly mumbled to Yu to "hold on a second" before the line went silent except for the distant sounds of the hustle and bustle of the police station. After a few moments, Yosuke returned to the line and said, "Hey, man, gotta go. We're heading off to question more people to hopefully get more leads. Call you later and see you tomorrow."

"Oh, ok. Good luck on the search.", Yu said.

"Thanks man. Bye"

"Bye." Yu replied, followed by the distinct beep of the phone call at his watch, he saw that he was talking for at least ten minutes and had thirty minutes left to spare. Leaning back on the chair, he opened up a news app on his phone and began aimlessly going through the recent news, resting himself before the trial would start.

* * *

Wednesday, May 19, 2021, Outside Yasogami High, Inaba

Nanako walked down the stony, gravel path that ran alongside the Samegawa river, deep in silent thought as the sun shone down on her gently from the clear, blue sky, enough so it provides comforting warmth but didn't annoy her with its scorching wrath and blinding brightness. The air was comfortably warm, just between the sweltering heat of summer and the bitter cold of winter, with an occasional burst of wind. It was a beautiful day really, with the constant sunlight illuminating the beauty of the many lush green, tall trees outlining the grassy shores of the murky, slow flowing river. But Nanako sharp brown eyes were barely focusing on the beauty of the surrounding. They were unfocused, staring slightly downwards as if she was observing her nose, but were lacking of any concentration, not concreating on anything on the exterior but simply gazing outwards without purpose. Her charming smile that dumbfounded many boys was reverted to an uncommon expression, not one of sadness, but simple neutrality. Her mind only minimally focused on the outside surrounding, ensuring that Nanako did not tangle her legs together or crash into the many other teenaged students that accompanied her, each dressed in the identical summer uniform of Yasogami High. Instead, they were focused on the argument she had with her father that morning

 _Damn, was I too harsh?_ she thought _Dad doesn't deserve me doing that kind of shit, he worked way too damn hard for me to get over it. Even it's annoying, it's still nice to see him care for me. Maybe I should apologize when I get back._ Sighing internally, she pondered _Yeah I should. After all he's-_

"Hey, Nanako!" a familiar voice pierced through the air, snapping Nanako out of her thoughts. It was a feminine voice, with a mid high pitch and a mature tone. Turning her head around, Nanako looked back and recognized her childhood friend for over ten years, Miwa Atsui, running towards her, dressed in the summer uniform of Yasogami High,

She was slightly the same height as Nanako, just one or two inches shorter then her best friend. Her hair was straight, short and black, unlike the long brown locks of Nanako, stopping short of her shoulders. Her pale clean face was pretty, with a smooth, rounded chin, smooth and soft cheeks, blue eyes. Her thin frame combined with her beauty made her fairly attractive, but not to the extent of her best friend attracted boys.

Smiling, Nanako stopped and waited for Miwa to catch up to her. When she finally reached Nanako, panting slightly from the exertion, Nanako smiled at her and said, "Oh, hi, Miwa."

"What are you doing, walking all aimlessly like that? You looked you were going to crash into someone." Miwa asked, both jokingly and seriously. "It's definitely not like you."

"Oh? Was I?" Nanako answered.

"Oh, definitely. I could see it a mile away"

"Yeah, I guess I was, it's a miracle that I didn't trip." Nanako admitted with a slight chuckle

"Is something wrong?" Miwa asked again, with full seriousness this time. "You seemed out of it. Like something was bothering you."

"Oh no..it's nothing." Nanako responded hesitantly, twirling her hair with her finger nervously. "You don't need to worry." Miwa instantly recognized her friends nervous twitch and knew that something WAS wrong. Something was bothering the usually cheerful, friendly Nanako she knew, and she was hiding it inside. As a concerned friend, she decided to press on and draw it out. As they began walking towards the gates of Yasogami High, she questioned politely, "Are you sure, Nanako? You know, keeping problems in isn't healthy for you. If you need someone to talk to, I'm here as a friend."

Nanako sighed and looked at Miwa, "Is it that obvious?"

"Yeah, it is. I can see it. I've known you for over ten years now, and I know when you're hiding something from me." Miwa said, rolling her eyes in the process. "So, please, Nanako, tell me what's bothering you." Miwa stared straight into Nanako's eyes pleadingly, telepathically telling her to release whatever is bothering her out

Nanako stayed silent for a couple moments before exhaling out a deep breath and confessing to Miwa, "I was a complete jerk to my dad this morning, and I feel shit about it. That's what's bothering me, Miwa"

Miwa laughed lightly. "Nanako, there's no reason to feel bad about that. I mean you're a teenager. It's normal for teenagers and their parents to have a spat or two. Everybody has some with their parents, even me. And you know how scary my parents can be when they're mad. And even if you feel bad, you can just apologize. He'll forgive you for sure. I mean, you're his only daughter. Was he even mad?"

Nanako answered slowly, "No..? I don't think so..?"

"See? No need to beat yourself over it. If he's not mad, why feel bad about it? He wasn't hurt by it, so just apologize and move on" Miwa reassured Nanako. "Seriously, Nanako, I think you're the only teenaged girl to openly admit to feel bad about being a jerk to their parents."

The resigned look on Nanako's face was replaced with a smirk, before she let out a hearty laugh, the weight of guilt weighing on her heart removed. Her eyes returned back to their regular cheerful gaze and her natural smile returned to her face. "Ha ha ha ha ha, I guess I am? Only me, right?"

"Of course only you." Miwa laughed. The two girls laughed at bit more, before regaining their composure. Afterwards, Nanako said, with hints of laughter still in her voice, "Thanks, Miwa. You always help me feel better when I need it. You're awesome."

"You are too, Nanako. With you, I feel so loose and casual, like I can say anything." Miwa praised, "Unlike with my parents, where if I say one bad thing, I'm in for a baaaaad time."

"A baaad time indeed. Didn't they ground you for a week for staying out too late?"

"Yeah they did! And I wasn't even that late, I only missed curfew by ten minutes! Damn, they're so strict sometimes!"

The two laughed with each other and continued walking towards the school, having a light conversation full of jokes and gossip as they trudged up the dirt path that went up the hill that had their high school on the top. When they were just outside the stone gates of Yasogami High, the conversation they were having about exams was interrupted by another voice, this time of a teenaged boy, yelling at them to wait up.

"Oh god, is that who I think it is?" Miwa commented as she heard the voice, turning her whole body around to look behind them. She saw, down further down the hill, a boy running up the hill towards them, with a black bookcase in his right hand.

"Yep. That's Yuuta-kun." Nanako confirmed. She also had turned around to face down the hill to look at the incoming person, who was hounding up the hill rapidly. As the boy got closer, she could see more details of him.

He was only a few inches taller than Nanako, and sported an average muscular and wide body currently dressed in the boy's uniform of Yasogami High. His brown hair was styled to be flat and short on the sides and have long bangs droop over his forehead. His eyes were round and light brown and had a constant playful look on his face.

When he finally reached the two, he panted and put his hands on his knees. After a few seconds, he leaned back up, crossed his arms, and while still panting, said confidently, "Hey, Nanako-chan, Miwa-san….how are you ladies doing?"

"Oh, it's you. Well, let's go, Nanako. Time for class." Miwa said nonchalantly. "Right?"

"Hey!" Yuuta complained, his arms becoming uncrossed as he finally caught his breath, "That's not very nice!"

"I'm doing very good, thanks, Yuuta-kun." Nanako replied nicely, before smiling a sly smile, "Well, until you got here."

"What?! Why are you two bashing me already? I haven't done anything wrong!" Yuuta protested as the two girls laughed at his expense.

"You came to talk to us." Miwa shot back, with a serious face.

"Huh?! I ran up that entire hill for you and this is what I get? Man, what a girl, no wonder you're single…"

"Hey.. you b-" Miwa yelled, her face turning slightly red.

"Oh, have some mercy, Miwa. We made the poor boy suffer already." Nanako said, with a sense of sympathy for Yuuta. "Now, Yuuta-kun, what's so important that you ran up the entire hill for?"

"Uh….." Yuuta hesitated "You!… I mean, to talk to you guys! Just that." His face turned tomato red as he blushed at his previous statement.

"Well, I never knew I was that charming to you, Yuuta-kun. But thanks for the compliment." Nanako said teasingly.

"Yuuta-kun, do you have a thing for my best friend? You DO realize her father is the chief detective of the Inaba Police Department, and that if you theoretically dated her, that you'll have to face HIM, the Iron Interrogator himself?" Miwa cautioned Yuuta, with a smirk on her face. "You won't have a nice time, that's for sure."

"A-a-anyways!" Yuuta stuttered, obviously flustered. "You guys hear about the news? How we're getting two transfers tomorrow."

"Yes. I do. I heard about it from my dad this morning. Said he heard it from Mr. Soruda." Nanako answered. "How did you know about it, Yuuta-kun?"

"Well, my boy Daichi's parents are teachers at the other high school to the south of here, and apparently, a week ago, they received some papers saying that there were two students moving into the area, and that they needed a high school to attend. Unfortunately, that school's second year is completely at capacity, so they sent them here. Daichi's dad was one who processed the papers, and he told Daichi over dinner, and he told me yesterday." Yuuta explained.

"Do you know anything about them? Besides that they're in our class?" Nanako asked.

"Well...I only know there's a boy and a girl, but that's all I know. That's all Daichi told me and when I asked for more, he said that that's all his dad told him. I could try convincing Daichi to dig around for more info, but.." Yuuta said.

"But that would be incredibly stupid, Yuuta-kun. Those papers probably contain sensitive information about the others that you shouldn't learn, Yuuta-kun. Plus, Daichi has enough trouble hanging out with you, he doesn't need to get in trouble for snooping around on your sake." Miwa interjected.

"Ah.. come on, Miwa-san! No need to be such a down-"

Just then, a bell rang in the distance, signalling the start of classes was in five minutes Yuuta, Miwa and Nanako quickly ended their conversation and joined the mass of students migrating into the classroom building. Before entering the building, Nanako turned her head to glance outside. It was only for a moment, but she caught a glance, in the blinding rays of the sun, a shadowy silhouette that resembled a women. But as quickly as she saw it, it disappeared again, leaving nothing but the Sun blinding her eyes. Turning back, she headed into the classroom building, pondering what she just saw as she ascended up the stairs to the second floor.


	3. Chapter 2

**AN: Chapter 2 is out! Only took two weeks this time! And it's the longest chapter of them all, maybe even bigger than both of them combined! But it's also a chapter I personally like, due to the YuxYukiko fluff in this chapter, even though I planned to introduce my OCs in this chapter initially. So I hope you enjoy this chapter of Persona ND! The way this story had grown since it was released is amazing and I thank you all for following, favoriting and reviewing my story. All are encouraging and motivate me to write more, faster!**

 **Just a side note, Yuuta and Miwa are NOT OCs. They are characters mentioned in Persona 4 Golden (and the original too), with Yuuta being part of the Temperance Social Link and Miwa being mentioned by Nanako as a friend in Rank 5 of Yosuke's Social Link. However, their design is complety original and based on my ideas. The new OCs are completely original though, so I hope you like them when I finally write them into this story.**

 **But enough of me rambling, let's get on with the story! As always, reviews are greatly appreciated, both positive and negative. Reviews help me learn about writing and the dos and don'ts. So don't hesitate to review if you see something I can work on!**

 **Chapter 2: Scars Burned by Mystery**

* * *

Wednesday May 19, 2021 Class 2-3, Yasogami High, Inaba

"That'll be it for today." Mr. Soruda said when the bell rang, closing the fat, old looking textbook in his hand and dropping the red marker onto the metal rail below the whiteboard. While erasing the mass of complex formulas consisting of a jumble of numbers, letters, and symbols on the whiteboard, he declared, "Finish the assigned questions in the textbook by tomorrow. To repeat, that's questions 1-11 on section 6.1"

Once he finished clearing the whiteboard of the red mess that once inhabited it and announced loudly. "On a different note, exam results will be posted tomorrow at lunch, on the bulletin board on the first floor. Most of you did fairly well on the math exam, some exceptionally well. I won't name names." Finishing his announcement, Mr. Soruda picked up his math books, which resembled dictionaries, and tucked them under his arm and walked out of the faded blue sliding door, the old wooden floor creaking as his dark brown leather shoes travelled across it.

When the teacher left the classroom, Nanako turned swiftly around from her seat and looked at Miwa who was behind her. Yuuta, who was two seats to the left, stood up from his desk and walked towards them.

"Uh… math makes my brain hurt…" Yuuta commented when he walked up to the desks the two girls were sitting at. They were already in a discussion, but they stopped and turned to look at Yuuta upon his comment. "It's so confusing, I barely understood a thing! I mean, I only really understood that one formula, what was it… tanx = sinx...over…..over...cosx? Damn it, now I even forgot that formula! I'm so screwed!" Yuuta stuck his hand in his hair and ruffled it around in frustration.

"Well, if you didn't fool around for half the class, and actually paid attention to the lecture and took proper notes, you would've learned something." Miwa said, scolding Yuuta, "You get as much as you put in. I'm surprised he didn't throw you out or give you detention after he caught you sleeping thirty minutes in."

"Spare me the lecture, Miwa-san"

"Well, I can help you, Yuuta-kun. You may be a lazy bum sometimes, but you're still my friend, theoretically. I'll lend you my notes." Nanako said, "After all, I understand that for some types, aka you, can struggle in school while me and Miwa may excel."

"Wow, really? Thanks, Nanako-chan! You're the best!" Yuuta praised as Nanako picked up a blue notebook with pages and pages willed small, neat pencil etched notes and handed them to him. "Your notes are always awesome, really. I feel like I'm actually good at school when I read them."

"Why, thank you. Yuuta-kun. But.. I want to make one thing clear, if you mess up, lose or do anything to my notes… let's say you won't feel anything for a week" Nanako threatened, with a sweet but sadistic tone in her voice, with a fiery look in her eyes.

"Yeah I w-w-won't do anything to them! I'll keep them safe, Nanako-chan!" Yuuta responded nervously, vibrating in fear.

"You better return those in mint condition, Yuuta-kun. You know how ruthless she can get." Miwa commented, with a wicked look in her eyes, "But knowing you, there's not much hope that you'll survive tomorrow without a couple bruises, or scratches."

"W-w-what? I'm sure I won't mess it up. I'm not that even messy. You guys are over-exaggerating!"

"Maybe we are, maybe we're not." Nanako replied, "But, Yuuta-kun, I hope that you can at least finish your homework with these notes and not completely manhandled by Mr. Soruda tomorrow. We all know that isn't pleasant."

"Tell me about it. He especially gives me shit, too. He may yell at you for screwing around in class, in the rare occurrence that you two do, but with me, if I make trouble, he completely blows up. Like a volcano." Yuuta complained noisily.

"Well, that is because you cause trouble all the time, Yuuta-kun." Nanako chuckled slightly, "Not on the level on some delinquents, but small things that make the teacher's heads spin."

"Not on the level, huh?" Yuuta said with a cocky smile, winking at the two girls. "Guess I got to step up my game."

"God, no." Miwa responded in opposition. "I don't want to think about what atrocities you'll put people through. Your poor mother already has to deal with enough, more will just overload her with a burden."

"A burden?!"

"Oh, Miwa. That was good. Struck him where it hurts." Nanako commented.

"It was nothing, too easy. Child's play."

"Wow, thanks for the assist, ladies." Yuuta sighed, "It's comforting to know I got such great friends that will literally roast me on a stick at every opportunity."

"By the way, Yuuta-kun, don't you have basketball practice today?" Nanako asked, "You don't want to be late, do you?"

"Do I…?" Yuuta pondered deeply, crossing his arms and looking slightly upwards as fell into deep thought. Realization blindsided Yuuta as his brown eyes widened with urgency. "Oh crap! I do! It;s Wednesday! Damn, Daichi's going to kill!" Dashing from the two girls to his desk across the now almost empty classroom, he grabbed his black book bag and hurriedly stuffed papers, books, notebooks and an assortment of other school supplies. When his desk was cleared, he took his bag and began sprinting for the door. Before he left the classroom, he looked back and yelled "Thanks Nanako-chan for reminding me! You're a very nice girl, unlike Miwa-san over here!"

"Excuse me?!" Miwa replied with anger, but Yuuta had already departed from the classroom, with the sliding door halfway closed. Huffing in anger, she turned back to look at Nanako and said, "I'll make him pay later. Anyway, should we go? We both have no clubs today and there's no point in staying here any longer."

"Yeah, there isn't." Nanako agreed, nodding in assent, "Alright, let's go."

The two girls began neatly packing their book bags, placing carefully with purpose the load of textbooks, notebooks, papers and other supplies one by one. Once the two bags were completely filled and fastened tightly shut and all belongings were packed, the two picked up their bags and headed out the classroom, walked down the stairs, and left the school grounds chatting about the potential new male transfer student.

* * *

Wednesday May 19, 2021, Dojima Residence, Inaba

It was almost midnight when Nanako finished all of her homework for the night. With a tired smile of relief and accomplishment, she closed the notebook littered with neat dark ink scribbles and switched off the fluorescent desk lamp lighting dimly on the dark painted work desk in the poorly lit room.

 _That's should be good for today._ Nanako said to herself, _But seriously, today's homework was killer. It took me longer to finish than I thought. Maybe I need to study it more? Maybe. But not tonight. God, I'm exhausted, and it's almost fucking midnight. Even Dad's already asleep. Time for bed._

Standing up slowly and quietly, with only the sounds of her soft breathes and the pattering light rain outside being heard, she tiptoed carefully across the rectangular bedroom to leave the room and go across the desolate and moon lit hallway towards the bathroom, cautious not to wake her father.

 _I do NOT need an angry father right now._ she asserted to herself to prevent her from making a potential misstep.

After washing up and getting dressed in her night clothes, a set of pink and red striped pajamas, she settled comfortably into her futon, pulling the green blankets up to her neck. Just as she was about to relax and close her eyes to sleep for the night, she glanced at the digital clock by her futon and saw in bright red numbers that it was midnight exactly. With a fatigued look on her face, she turned around away from the clock and closed her eyes, with nothing but the faint sound of static and the increasingly intense rain, which had converted from a light shower to a full on streams.

 _Was that the TV I just heard?_ she wondered in her head as she drifted slowy off to sleep, succumbing to the fatigue she had after a hard evening of homework and studying.

* * *

" _Where did Daddy and Big Bro go? Daddy looked really mad, were they fighting?" the young girl with brown pigtails said, with a worried expression on her face. She was sitting on the carpeted floor, in front of the television, watching a quiz show alone in the eerily empty house, with the sounds of rain pouring down on the roof._

" _DING-DONG!" the doorbell rang suddenly, out of blue, making the girl watching TV look over to the door with surprise._

" _Who's at the door? Is it Big Bro and Daddy? Are they back already? I hope Daddy's not mad." the girl thought, as she got up from the ground and trotted towards the front door. Looking through the peephole on her tiptoes when she reached the door, she saw it was the delivery man, Namatame-san._

" _Ah! It's Namatame-san! Big Bro must of ordered something from that shopping show again! Ok, then it's fine if I answer the door, because he's not a stranger." the girl thought as she reached up for the handle and slid open the door. What was in front of her was not what she expected. Instead of Namatame-san, there was emptiness, only the streams of rain pouring down visible in the moonlight on this November night._

" _Huh?! Where's Nama-" the girl asked with confusion as she stepped outside. The moment she set her foot on the wet concrete outside, a hand holding a cloth soaked with a smelly substance covered her face, muffling her scream in horror and forcing her to inhale the burning fumes of the alcohol smelling substance. Another hand wrapped strongly around her torso, pinning her struggling arms and body still. After a few seconds of futile sturggling in absolute desperation, the girl fell unconscious and limp in the man's arms._

 _For the few seconds before the substance took their effect, nothing but terror was running the girl's body. The moment the girl was knocked out, all she thought was, as darkness began to swallow her field of view_

" _Daddy...Big….bro…."._

* * *

" _Where….am….I...?" the girl thought sluggishly, half asleep, as she regained consciousness. She was laying limp on the cold hard steel floor of a trunk of some sort of car, based on what she could see with her fuzzy vision obstructed by darkness by her half-closed eyelids. She could hear the roaring of the car's engine, and the slight vibrations of the floor, indicating that the car was in motion._

" _Is this…..who's…..car...is...this…?" The girl's eyelids began to slip and close once again, threatening to condemn her to total darkness, as the drug she was given threatened to pull her under to deep sleep once again. At that moment, she remembered the events that transpired before she lost consciousness._

" _Wait…...Namatame….san...he…..he…" the girl remembered. She remembered the rough and strong hand that grabbed her torso that subdued her struggling limbs. She remembered the bitter, burning smell that knocked her out and the soft cloth that suffocated her with darkness. She remembered the icy fear and desperation she felt as she fell from consciousness._

" _No….why….did...did…..I….open….the….door….?" Suddenly, the car lurched violently to the side, and a screeching sound could be heard. The girl was thrown like a rag doll and crashed into the metal wall of the compartment she was confined in. The noise of the engine began to grow louder and louder, and the girl felt the car gain speed._

" _I…..should…'ve…..listened... to …..Daddy….don't...open….door" The car lurched side to side continuously, throwing the girl around the trunk uncontrollably. Her limbs and her brain felt disconnected, and any movement felt like she was lathered in thick tar. Despite banging onto the metal floor and walls with some force, she barely registered any pain._

" _Am...I...going…..to…..heaven…? Am…..I…..going….to….be….with….Mommy..?" A loud banging impact was heard as the car suddenly halted, throwing the girl forward towards the driver's seat so strongly that she actually felt sharp pain on her side when she collided with the metal partition between the trunk. A quiet moan of pain escaped her lips as she laid there, writhing in pain._

" _Daddy….Big…Bro...where….are…..you, Daddy...save….me….I...don't...want...to...go…" she thought as her vision faded slowly to black._

* * *

Thursday, May 20, 2021 Dojima Residence, Inaba

"GOOOOO!" Nanako shrieked as she shot up rapidly from her futon, panting and with beads of sweat scattered across her forehead. Her brown eyes were terrified, and her heartbeat was beating at an alarming pace. Realizing that she no longer was in the horrifying scenario her mind conjured, and that she was in the safety in her moonlit bedroom, she took a few precious moments to calm herself down and regulate her breathing to a normal and healthy rate.

Wiping sweat from her forehead with her trembling hand, she thought, _Damn it. Not again. It always happens, eventually. It's not even following what actually happened, but it always terrifies me, every night._ Looking around from her futon, she scanned the darkened room and observed the door for a couple seconds, worried that her father was going to burst in protectively in response to the loud shriek she let out. After she reassured herself that her father was still fast asleep, she sat up on her futon and thought _I'm lucky he didn't hear me. If he had heard me, he would have flipped at me for lying about this. How it went away._ _How it doesn't scare me anymore._

Guilt wrapped around Nanako's chest like tight metal chains. She felt terrible about lying to her father about this, even though she knew he loved her dearly. He crashed his car in hot pursuit of her kidnapper almost a decade ago and sustained severe injuries as a result, after all. He only wanted the best for his daughter, and that included insuring her daughter didn't live her life plagued by traumatic nightmares about that terrifying November night. She knew that, and the fact she was hiding this from him weighed down her heart.

 _I did it so he doesn't have to worry about me. So he doesn't have to spend so much time and energy dealing with this. So he doesn't have to bear the burden of my issues._ she thought to reassure herself _It's not even the experience that scares me anymore, despite the nightmares, it's the...unknown...about this incident. The things that still haven't been solved. The lingering questions in my mind. I mean, where the hell did Namatame hide me so he evaded police attention for weeks? Why was I found IN Junes, in the electronics department? What does Big Bro have to do with this, why was HE the one that found me and rescued me? And those weird memories, I sure they're dreams, they're too crazy to be real, but they feel...real. They're so vivid, so clear. What ARE these memories? Until I answer these questions, it'll haunt me for the rest of my life._

The alarm blaring beside her suddenly snapped her out of her deep thought, and she jumped in surprise due to the sudden noise. She turned and looked at the digital display, confirming that it was indeed already six in morning. She pressed the snooze button on top of the clock, and stood up from her futon and walked out her room to the bathroom to begin her daily morning routine.

She had just finished showering and was drying herself up with a long white towel in the steam-filled bathroom when she heard the front door slide open faintly. She froze in place and ceased what she was doing in silent panic and listened carefully. As she was listening, she heard muffled footsteps and bits of a young man's voice, full of confidence and composure, calling out to someone. After a while, the voice fell silent, and Nanako could no longer hear any noises coming from downstairs. She let out a breath of relaxation, her tense muscles becoming loose, and began drying herself once again. After she had finished her task, she walked over to her bedroom adjacent to the bathroom and began changing into her school uniform.

It was when she was fully dressed and was packing up her notebooks and textbooks neatly into her black leather bookbag when she detected another sound, a faint sizzling originating from downstairs, mostly likely from the kitchen area. Realization dawned on her as she recognized the sound as an egg being cooked, as she connect her thoughts to determine who the mysterious visitor was. A faint light smile formed on Nanako's face as she grabbed her fully packed book bag and raced down the stairs.

 _There's only one man that lives, or lived in this house, that would try to cooking something._ Nanako thought as she descended down the stairs. When she reached the bottom of the stairs, she was greeted with the sight she expected to see moments ago, but not anytime before then.

She saw the sight of Yu Narukami by the stove, with a couple of uniformly broken eggshells and clear plastic canisters of spices beside him, cooking a batch of fried eggs. He was dressed in a long sleeved solid black shirt and black stylish jeans. Upon hearing Nanako drop down the final step of the stairs, he turned to her, smiled with his classic confident and composed expression, and said, "Good morning, Nanako."

"Big bro? BIG BRO!" Nanako blurted out in a mixture of jubilation and confusion, her eyes sparkling with happiness but also widened in shock. Recovering from her outburst, she rushed over to her twenty-seven year old cousin/ big brother and pulled in him for a crushing hug. "Oh, it's been so long since you last visited!"

Yu laughed heartily as he patted the back of his younger cousin, who was almost six inches shorter than him. "Sixteen years old and you still call me 'Big Bro'. It makes me reminiscent of my teenage days when you were a wee seven years old."

Nanako pulled away from Yu and blushed a deep red tone, and smacked his arm gently. "Don't even get started on that point. I get enough slack from Miwa and Yuuta-kun for referring you like that."

Yu chuckled even more and turned back to the stove, focusing on creating a masterpiece of a fried egg. He gently used a wooden spatula to flip the half cooked egg over and sprinkled a bit of salt, oregano and pepper onto it. As the uncooked side began to sizzle, he said to Nanako, "Ah, the wonder of great friends. Only those who are truly close to you can tease you so much. Reminds me of Yosuke and Chie-chan."

"Yosuke-san and Chie-san? Oh, right. Those two. They're so close these days, by the way. I see Yosuke-san hang out with Chie-san a lot at Aiya's and by Samegawa." Nanako recollected, "It's almost like they're dating…."

"Is it?" Yu questioned, smirking with a devilish look behind his glasses, "Well, I know of one man who would embrace that as reality, for sure."

 _Wait, what? No…._ Nanako said in her head when she heard Yu's comment, _Surely he's not saying that Yosuke-san…._ Nanako quickly dismissed her thoughts and shook her head slightly, _A-anyway! There's more important things to talk about right now then Yosuke-san's romantic life!_ She quickly changed the subject and asked, "How you came without telling us beforehand? I never knew you were coming today!"

"Well, I did tell, just not you, Nanako." Yu replied as he used the wooden spatula to remove the egg from the black frypan onto a waiting white plate beside the stove. Leaning foward to turn the knobs on the stove's interface to turn off the the heat, he continued, "I only told Uncle that I was coming because I wanted to surprise you. Besides, I meant to drop by late last night, around 11 o'clock. but I was delayed by traffic for almost one hour, and I had some problems at work which delayed me by an hour. I came around Inaba at 1. I didn't want to disturb Uncle or you, so I just stayed at Yukiko's for the night"

"Did you?" Nanako said, with a hint of suspicion in her voice. "You didn't want to disturb our sleep, but you disturbed your girlfriend's?"

"Oh..well…." Yu answered, a bit flustered, as he grabbed the white plate with the cooked eggs in it and walked over to the dining table, placing on the plate on its wooden surface and taking a seat. Nanako joined him and sat down in one of the chairs surrounding it. "She was wrapping her shift at night and was dealing with some guests that had a bit TOO much to drink, and were making an absolute ruckus, so she had to shut them down, classic Yukiko style. By the time she was done, I was almost at Inaba, so she texted me if I wanted to stay the night. So I gladly accepted. I'm not one to reject invitations to go to my girlfriend's house." Yu asserted the last point pointedly.

"Hmm...okkk…" Nanako said, with obvious doubt in her voice, "But are you sure you didn't have any ulterior motives that night. I mean, two lovers who haven't seen each other since New Year's…"

"Oh, Nanako" Yu responded confidently and teasingly, "When did you have such a naughty mind? The fact that that was the first thing you thought of...I better have a serious conversation with Uncle about this...Don't think he'll be happy about his little girl thinking about the wonders of procreation.."

"W-what?!" Nanako blurted, obviously flustered, which was a rare sight. "T-t-that was the last thing I was implying! Totally!" She attempted to cover her embarrassment, but her cheeks began to glow red. "Without any evidence, you can't accuse me! You're a prosecutor, you should know all so well!"

"Oh, playing that card? Give over, I know what you were implying. You're sixteen anyways. You SHOULD be knowledgeable about the aspects about procreation." Yu cooly said.

"Can we stop talking about this now?"

"Ok, ok." Yu conceded with a natural smile, chuckling. He pushed the plain white clay plate with the well made eggs towards Nanako. "Eat up, breakfast is on me, today. Except for the toast."

"Thanks, Big Bro. Your eggs are actually the best eggs I have ever tried." Nanako praised, as she got up from her seat and walked over to the kitchen to prepare some toast. After placing two slices of bread into the toaster, she returned to her seat at the table, with some silverware in hand. Using the stainless steel fork, she stabbed into an egg and placed it into her mouth. It was absolute heaven for her tastebuds. How he made such eggs so consistently amazing was a unsolvable mystery to her, even after being taught how to cook more advanced dishes by him.

"I heard that your class is getting transfer students today. Two actually", he suddenly said, while Nanako had a mouthful of delicious egg. Chewing quickly and swallowing, she responded, "Yeah, we are. How'd did you know?"

"Uncle told me. I also heard that they're both from Tokyo, and that there's one boy and one girl."

"Uh-huh, yea, a friend of mine told me that. Yuuta-kun, remember him?"

"Oh, Yuuta-kun!" Yu exclaimed in realization, "Of course I remember him, he was one of the kids I took care of at the daycare ten years ago. His mother, him and I were really close. He was always a handful, that one. So full of energy and he would pull off the funniest antics. Heard that he still does…"

"Well, maybe…ok, yeah, but he's still a really nice guy. Behind all that carefree jokester act is a surprisingly caring friend." Nanako commented.

"That's nice. It's good to see him grow up to be such a fine young man, even though sometimes he isn't so fine."

"That's true… he can be pretty lazy, and a bit of an idiot too…."

"Huh. Reminds me of Yosuke." Yu chuckled in response, as he got up from his seat and took two identical white coffee mugs from the head high cupboard. He went over to the metal pot, which was filled already with steaming dark coffee, and filled each mug up to the brim. Adding a packet of sugar and cream to each filled mug, he returned to the dining table and offered the mug to Nanako. "Coffee?" he asked.

"Sure, I would definitely like some. I'm pretty tired, so I guess some caffeine won't hurt." Nanako accepted the mug and grabbed it by the curved handle. She took a long gulp of coffee and sighed with fatigue.

"Why are you tired? Couldn't sleep well?" Yu asked, with concern causing his eyebrows to furrow.

"Yeah, didn't sleep well."

"Why not?" Yu pressed on further, swiftly reverting from his laid back, friendly self with family and friends to his ruthless, serious prosecutor self reserved for criminals and non compliant witnesses.

"Oh...umm..nothing…" Nanako lied weakly, while twirling her hair around with her pointer finger. She was obviously hiding something. It didn't take a prosecutor with experience questioning suspects and witness on a regular basis to see the signs. The avoidance of eye contact, the nervous twitch, the slight clenching of the lip tight together. Yu squinted in disbelief, as he began to worry. _What could be so bad about saying what caused her not to be able to sleep? Insomnia isn't illegal, and I know 'cause I'm a prosecutor. How hard is it to say that the bed was uncomfortable..?_

"Nanak-" he said before being interrupted by a popping noise in the kitchen. Looking towards the source of the noise, he saw that was the toaster ejecting the now golden brown toast out of its slots. Nanako noticed the now finished toast and sensing a chance to avoid admitting any undesirable truth, exclaimed "Oh! The toast's ready!", before grabbing her plate with half eaten eggs on it and swiftly leaving the table to retrieve the slices of toast, avoiding any eye contact and conversation with Yu. Once she had placed the toast on her plate and grabbed some butter from the fridge, she sat back down at the table in silence and began buttering her toast with her full attention, not conversing with Yu at all.

Yu wanted to bring the issue up again, but he could see that Nanako obviously did not wanted to disclose whatever information she was hiding, and that it would take a fair bit of pressing to get her to tell him. He didn't believe that hiding it was the right answer, but he could see that now was not the time for an interrogation or a cross-examination. He already had a good idea what is was, anyways. _I discuss it with Uncle when I see him later._ he thought. Opting to lighten the mood, he asked, "So...exam marks being posted today? Are you nervous? Did you do well on them?"

Nanako looked up from her toast at that question, slightly startled. When she realized it was an innocent question, not a grilling by her 'big bro' for concealing information, she relaxed her facial expression, and responded, "A little. But I'm sure I did well. Maybe not top of the class, like you, but definitely enough to pass and impress the average student."

"Oh, such confidence." Yu laughed, as he began conversing with Nanako, asking light-hearted friendly questions and generally having some nice brother-sister bonding time for a couple minutes, even though they weren't even actually siblings, by law or by biology. Yu's mind was completely clear and focused during the conversation, but began to wander to the events of last night, or technically, this morning, when Nanako asked what Yu and Yukiko were going to do now that they were together for a couple weeks.

* * *

Thursday May 20, 2021, Outside Inaba

"Damn." Yu muttered tiredly as he tapped his fingers gripped on the sleek dark leather steering wheel, glancing at the digital green numbers of his car's computer display with tired, strained eyes which were slightly bloodshot. The outside surroundings of his small sleek blue car was completely pitch black, with only the faded, yellow streetlights towering above him illuminating the solid dark pavement as he zoomed down the highway towards Inaba, which for the first time in almost three hours, was completely desolate of any fellow cars.

 _Finally, I got the road to myself. Fucking traffic. Making a three hour trip four hours instead._ Yu thought darkly. His usual confident and friendly gaze was replaced by a irritated and tired glare as he attempted to focus on the road with an exhausted mind. Almost involuntary and halfhearted twitches of his arms controlled the steering wheel, maneuvering the car gently to prevent him from going off road. _And the missing paperwork when I was filing my case file after the guilty verdict, wasted an hour on that shit. Dojima-san said he thinks the Inaba detectives can be incompetent? He hasn't meet the ones they have in Tokyo That one fucking..._ His eyes drooped for a millisecond from pure fatigue, before recovering sharply and realigning his eyes to face the road.

 _God am I so tired._ Yu thought, as he glanced again at his digital car clock, which currently displayed the time as 12:54. _Once I reach Inaba, when I get within five feet of a futon, I'm going to rush into that futon and sleep…._ He yawned deeply, and sighed with exhaustion. _That is, if I don't crash the car first….._ he thought as he approached a shiny blue metal sign with white generic letters and numbers. While still keeping a focus on the road, he turned his gaze and read the sign as he passed by it.

 _Inaba, 2 km, next exit…_ he read in his mind, _Oh, thank God. I'm almost there. But, it's almost one am. Nanako and Uncle should be asleep by now, I don't want to disturb them...but where will I sleep?_ His thoughts were interrupted by the sound of three mechanical tones, coming from his phone, indicating that a text has arrived. Moving one hand from the steering wheel, he reached over to the digital computer in the middle of the driver and passenger seats, and keyed in a few commands to display the text he received.

 _Hey Yu, have you arrived at Inaba yet? It's pretty late, and I'm not sure Nanako-chan or Dojima-san will be up by now._ _If you don't want to wake up so late, you can stay at my place for the night. It's been awhile since we last seen each other anyway, btw. :)_

 _-Yukiko_

Yu smiled tiredly at the text, as a familiar warm feeling tickled his heart. It was the same warm feeling that he felt when he spoke with her, was with her, and thought about her for the decade he had known her, from their days fighting shadows and chasing a dimension hopping murderer, to nowadays where they manage a long distance relationship, still tight and full of love from both sides. It was a bond that could never be broken, no matter the distance between Inaba and Tokyo.

 _And soon, that distance might be null. The "long distance" in long distance relationship will be gone…..if this goes as planned._ Yu contemplated _But now's not the time for that. Mitsurugi-san still hasn't got back to me about those transfer papers. I'll have to wait until he says the chief accepted my request. I'll call him about it later._ He quickly typed _Sure, why not? I'm right about there anyway._ and pressed the green touch screen button to send the reply, as he pulled into the exit lane and left the highway to enter the streets of Inaba. After navigating his way around the maze of deserted streets of Inaba, he took a right turn and turned onto the road that went up the hill towards the Amagi Inn, and Yukiko's house.

 _This road sure bring back memories_ Yu thought as he drove up the hill _All those times walking down or up this road with Yukiko in our high school years, just talking and being in each other's company, it sure is something I'll remember._ Memories of the time spent with her flooded into his mind, as he recounted the time where he secretly took her out on a date after the previous day's disaster with the rest of his friends, the time before the fireworks show where they mischievously snuck off from their friends for a romantic moment before nearly getting caught by Nanako and Dojima, the romantic first Christmas they had together, and the windy day at the beach on Valentine's Day where they shared some simple but delicious chocolate, made, fortunately, by the generous chefs of the Amagi Inn.

He finally reached the top of the winding road that snaked up the hill, and reached the iconic Amagi Inn, surrounded by the pitch black night sky with only the yellow artificial light from numerous lights and window providing any illumination. Past the cobblestone pillars that acted as a makeshift gate, the main road lead into a medium-sized paved parking lot that was virtually devoid of any life and was only lit by the assortment of bright tall lamps uniformly scattered around the rectangular area. Despite being empty of any humans, the lot was almost filled to capacity with cars, and Yu spent approximately three minutes navigating the parking lot until he found a suitable parking space and pulled into to park his modern blue car. Stopping the ignition, he tiredly got out of the driver's seat, and with the slightest twitch of his head with a tiny black device with numerous button on it, locked the doors of car before walking towards the entrance of the inn.

When he approached the double glass doors that acted as the entrance, he saw through the polished glass that the lobby was still lit up. Amidst the lobby, he caught onto the sight of a young, black haired woman sitting at the front desk. His breath was taken away when he realized it was his girlfriend for ten years, Yukiko. His normally under control emotions began to run wild as genuine joy filled his heart. A heartfelt and admiring smile formed under his exhausted expression.

She was dressed in a beautiful long pink dressing gown that reached down to her ankles. Her long black hair was let out of the bun she tied it in during the day and was left to hang delicately over her shoulders, as she sat gracefully on the seat behind the front desk. Her enchanting face was tired, but still displayed her features beautifully, that mature and elegant expression capturing his emotions like it did when he finally fell for her when they were both still high school students. She was sitting still patiently, but seemed to be internally shaking with anticipation, her dark brown eyes glancing quickly towards the glass front double doors. When her eyes caught sight of Yu, standing by the door, her eyes gleamed with delight as she hastily got out of her chair and shuffled towards the entrance to greet him.

"Yu…" she whispered affectionately, as her eyes locked dreamily onto Yu's.

Without a response, Yu suddenly pulled Yukiko in tightly and pressed his lips against hers passionately. Yukiko felt her heartbeat accelerate and her mind wandered, focusing only on the warm, familiar embrace and the lips that smothered against her. Her eyes were gently closed shut, but she could still recognize the strong, gentle arms that wrapped around her and the smooth face that brushed against hers. When he finally pulled his lips away, she was breathing heavily but very quietly, as the rush of intense emotions died down to a calm moderato. She opened her eyes and gazed into the sharp, gray eyes of her boyfriend.

"It's been too long. I missed you way too much." Yu said, still holding Yukiko tight. "I couldn't see you for such a long time due to work."

"You too… I missed you too..." Yukiko responded, her breath still heavy.

"But now I'm here, and I never felt so more happy for four months. I missed spending Valentine's Day and my birthday with you because of that long investigation I was working on. Now I get finally to spend time with you, and I love every moment of it."

Yukiko giggled, "You better..what kind of boyfriend would you be if you didn't?"

"A very bad one, of course. But you know I'm not that..right?" Yu joked, chuckling heartily. He raised his hand to her face and began playing with her long black hair.

"Of course you aren't. I wouldn't have kept you around if you weren't." Yukiko responded sweetly as Yu twirled around strands of her hair. "Scratch that. I would have _slapped_ you if you weren't"

"Scary as always, my princess." Yu smiled. Her surprising ferocity when offended or attacked was only one of things that surprised him when he was friends with her ten years ago. The things she threatened to do to Teddie when he pressed her about her shadow or other things were absolutely terrifying, and the fire in eyes when she made the threats was equally so. And Yu loved her for that, that passion for things close to her, that ferocity and bravery, it was admirable and later endearing. He released her from the hug and added "At least it isn't an Agidyne."

"Oh? Do you want an Agidyne instead, Yu?"

"Maybe. But then, I'll just call Surt and have him absorb it all. Benefits of being a wild card."

"You mean a fool? Because I'm pretty sure 'The Fool' in tarot cards represents 'infinite possibilities', which sounds like you and your power." Yukiko said innocently.

"Ooff" Yu winced in imaginary pain, though still smiling genuinely. Another endearing thing about his lover. Her underhanded insults. Only she could say something and make it seem so innocent and null of ill intent, but actually be an insult. "I guess the winner is Miss Amagi."

"I'm glad to hear that." Yukiko said triumphantly, before reverting to a more questioning tone, "Why did you come at this hour anyway? Surely this wasn't planned. It's dangerous to drive on the roads this late at night."

"You're right. It wasn't planned. I meant to arrive two hours ago, but heavy traffic and a paperwork mistake delayed me by two hours." Yu explained. "You know when we were investigating the murders ten years ago and we joked that the detectives in Inaba were idiots? Yeah, some detectives in Tokyo really make Inaba's detectives back then look like geniuses. Especially one of them… Detective Itonokogiri, I think his name was."

"Really? Oh, I'm so sorry. That must have been tough and frustrating. I sure don't want to be in your shoes." Yukiko repiled.

"Don't be sorry. It's not your fault, Yukiko, that paperwork got lost in an office hundreds of kilometers away, and those cars decided to all travel down the road I was on in Tokyo." Yu requested seriously, "Anyway, what are _you_ doing up so late?"

"Oh me? Oh, I was helping out at the inn at usual, and I was about to go to bed when there was a disturbance being made by some drunk inn guests. I had to go and quiet them down before they woke up the entire inn, and my mother. I was the only one up at the time." Yukiko explained.

"Hmm, I bet you dealt with them well." Yu commented, with a smirk. He then looked outside the glass doors and remembered that he forgot his luggage in the trunk of his car. "Shit. I left my luggage in car. Wait here, I'll go get it." He began walking towards the exit door while rummaging through his side pocket for his car keys, feeling his soft leather wallet and smartphone.

"Ok. I'll be waiting in your room." Yukiko said as she began walking towards the side of the room, towards a big wooden door that appeared to be different to all the other doors leading to parts of the Amagi Inn. Closer inspection revealed a small metal sign on the centre of the door, reading "STAFF ONLY".

"Uhh.. where exactly is my room exactly, Yukiko? Am I not staying in a room in the inn..?" Yu asked with confusion as he turned around to face.

"Of course not, Yu" Yukiko answered sweetly, with her hand on the door, ready to open it. "You're staying with me tonight."

"Oh...right, well, I'll be there" Yu reacted with a bit of anxiety and a bit of happiness, before turning and pushing his way through the glass double doors. As he navigated the dark, lamp lit, parking lot towards his car, he thought _I'm the luckiest man in the world. What did I do to deserve her?_

She was the girl of his dreams, his perfect partner. He could have not asked for a girl that was as beautiful, strong, passionate, caring and loving as she was, and he was willing to do anything to spend time with her and be with her. He loved her with all his heart, and wanted to be with her until the end of time.


	4. Chapter 3

**AN: Hello everybody! After 3 long months without any updates, I finally got the time to complete the 3rd chapter of this story. Granted, this chapter is shorter than the others, shorter than I would like. In fact, what will be Chapter 4, was intended to be part of Chapter 3. But since I decided you deserved some updates after 3 months, I decided just to release this first part, even though it is shorter than planned. Updates will be more frequent since its summer break, so you won't have to wait as long as before.**

 **Again, please review this story so I can improve. If you see mistakes and flaws, please note them so I can improve them. Anyway please enjoy this very short chapter of Persona ND.**

 **EDIT: Derp, forgot to add a chapter title.**

 **Chapter 3: New Arrivals**

* * *

Thursday, May 20, 2021 Class 2-3, Yasogami High, Inaba

The ambient chatter of the students conversing amongst each other filled the room like a thin layer of smoke was suffocating the classroom, making hearing fairly difficult. Laughs, ranging from soft, controlled giggles to an outburst of sharp laughs, pierced the noise of the lively but calm pre homeroom discussions. Students waited boringly in their seats or standing by the desks of their friends, waiting for the homeroom teacher to walk into the classroom and begin homeroom.

Despite the somewhat mellow atmosphere of the room, there was a certain extra sense of excitement of the room, as the conversations were more lively than usual while still being at an appropriate noise level, due to probably of the anticipation of the arrival of not one, but two, transfer students, into their second year class. Both from the city, one boy and one girl for the eager teenagers of both genders willing to date and delve into the unknowns of the romantic realm. This was a major topic of discussion, especially in all male and all female groups. Bits of their idealistic fantasies and hopes of fictional love could be faintly picked up by Nanako and Miwa.

"They just going on and on about the female transfer student, aren't they?" Nanako groaned, as she overheard some especially risque criteria from a group of male students. "It's not very nice to judge a girl before you meet her. Imagine if she heard what they were saying."

"I argee. Those guys are being so shallow right now. They won't get any girls to date them if they continue to act like that. I know I wouldn't date someone like that." Miwa responded in assent with a hint of irritation.

"If you did, theoretically, get a boyfriend, and he treated you like that, I'll definitely give him a piece of my mind. No one treats my best friend like that, no matter who you are." Nanako repiled, "Then again, that is if you get a boyfriend, because you have such high standards. No boy I ever saw is able to charm you."

"That's because I don't need a boyfriend that with for my looks and my body only. Intimacy is much deeper than that. If you want to be in a relationship with me, try to bond with me on a personal level, instead of staring at my boobs."

"Ah, it's a pity that you're so mature about relationships already. If you said that to boys more often when they try to win you over, maybe you wouldn't be hit on so much? I mean, you're so polite and nice to them even though it irritates the hell out of you."

"You know I'm more on the quiet side, and I don't like to bash other people's feelings, even though I'm sick of all of it."

"I know. You're so formal sometimes with teachers and stuff. It's like you're two different people when talking with me and Yuuta-kun and when you're talking to people outside your comfort zone."

"Whatcha doing, ladies?" Yuuta said, with a smirk, as he walked up to the desks Nanako and Miwa were sitting in, "Discussing your thoughts on our new male classmate, fresh from the big bustling city?"

"No. We wouldn't go that low, unlike you." Miwa repiled coldly, "I heard you when we were walking to school with your friend Daichi-kun. You two wouldn't stop rambling about the female transfer student, and her potential 'measurements'. You are really perverted sometimes, Yuuta-kun."

"Ahh, I could say the same thing. What were you talking about when you left the school yesterday?" Yuuta shot back confidently, with a gleeful look in his eyes. "Not the 'new male classmate', perhaps?" He said that with a taunting and sarcastic tone, as he waggled his finger towards Miwa.

"Shit..we been caught, Miwa." Nanako muttered quietly, with Miwa glaring at Yuuta with a icy stare. "Might at well admit it. The man has done his homework."

"How the actual hell did you know what we were talking about?!" Miwa asked angrily with suspicion, still keeping her serious gaze on Yuuta. "You left for basketball practice before we left, You shouldn't even know!"

"Ahhh, well, you see, I left my water bottle in my desk in the classroom. So when I was heading back to retrieve it, I saw you two standing still, talking by the shoe lockers. You guys didn't notice me, but I heard some _very_ intriguing bits of that conversation as I went upstairs." Yuuta explained.

"So you eavesdropped on our conversation?! Oh, you piece of shit!", Miwa complained furiously, putting her hand on her forehead. "Now he knows. He's going to dangle this over our heads for months now, Nanako!"

"Come on, Miwa. We got plenty of arsenal to fight back with. Like the incidents he caused in middle school, in our first year, and some this year too…." Nanako said reassuringly, placing a firm hand on Miwa's shoulder. Unlike Miwa's burning eyes of a combination of panic and fury, her eyes were calm but fierce, like a predator eyeing its prey.

"Oh right. Like the one time at the water foundation…" Miwa said, void of all the vivid, ferocious emotion present beforehand.

"And the incident at the change rooms, who could forget that…?" Nanako added. "And what about…."

"Ok! Ok! OK!" Yuuta interrupted desperately, "I get your point. I won't dangle the fantasies of the city boy over your head. Damn, you two, being all passive-aggressive, it scares the living shits out of me." He shook his head in resignation, and left out a sigh.

Upon the noise of a sliding door opening, the chatter among the scattered students in the class suddenly fell silent. Squeaks of chair scraping the floor and the pattering of the feet of multiple students shuffling quickly back to their seats was all that could be heard in the quiet classroom as the middle aged, brown haired Mr. Saruda walked in, tailed by two students dressed in the Yasogami High Uniform. One was a tall boy with a slim, muscular frame with thin,long legs. His cleanly shaved face made him look older than his age, his mouth forming a slight but distinct frown. Under his thinly framed glasses, his brown eyes formed a serious expression, but not in anger, and his short black hair was shaggy but was neatly swept to the side over his forehead. He walked into the class with a confident and orderly posture, his back upright, not slouching.

The student behind him was an extremely attractive girl with delicately smooth brown hair that extended to her chest in soft curls, bouncing her times she made a step. Her face was smooth and radiant as marble, and her green eyes were like polished emeralds, with a natural yet flirty sparkle. She formed a cheerful smile as she walked with a happy bounce behind the tall student, oblivious of all the attention she was getting from her new classmates. Following Mr. Saruda, the short, thin girl stopped with the male transfer student in the front of the class, and turned to face the class, ready to be introduced.

Mr. Saruda cleared his throat and commanded in a "Settle down, class. Homeroom has begun. As you can see, and as you all have heard, two new students will be transferring into our class as of today. One transferred in from Tokyo, the other from Okina, and I expect all of you to give them a warm welcome to this school. Now, I'll let them introduce themselves." Motioning to the students, the tall male student said in a deep voice formally, while bowing slightly, "Hello, my name is Rei Shizuya". The female student followed in an energetic and fast paced voice, retaining her cheerful smile. She quickly bowed to the class before saying "Hello! My name is Saiwa Yutuchi!"

Amidst the quiet muttering of the class, Nanako turned her head back towards Miwa and whispered, "What do you think of the transfers?"

"The girl seems pretty friendly, though she does seem a bit immature." Miwa responded discreetly, not wanting to be heard by Mr. Saruda and be chastised "The guy though, he's very formal and mature. He's giving off a vibe of being a bit cold and unfriendly to others."

"I know, he's more formal and mature than you" Nanako noted, "Though that's only to strangers or adults. You aren't like that with me or Yuuta-kun. Especially Yuuta-kun. Yutuchi-san's hair though.. It's so smooth and pretty... I wish my hair was like that.."

"Alright then, settle down, class", Mr. Saruda announced loudly, cutting through the soft chatter of the class and silencing it abruptly. He turned to the two transfers standing next to him." Now that you two are done introducing yourselves, let's find you some seats."

He scanned the room carefully until he located two unoccupied desks. Pointing to one which was to the left of Yuuta's desk, he said, "Shizuya-san, you can sit there….and…", directing his hand towards a desk to the right of Miwa, "Yutuchi-san, why don't you sit there?". The two nodded in assent and hastily shuffled their way across the old wooden floor to their respective seats. As Saiwa sat down, she turned to Miwa and greeted her with a friendly smile, "Guess we're sitting next to each other, huh? What's your name?"

"My name is Miwa Atsui." Miwa said in a formal tone, bowing slightly, "and this here is my friend, Nanako Dojima. It's a pleasure to meet you, Yutuchi-san."

"Nice to meet to you, too, Dojima-san and Atsui-san." Saiwa responded excitedly. She then turned her head towards Nanako and gave her a curious expression. " Say, Dojima-san, I feel like I've seen you before, but I can't quite remember it…."

"No, I don't we met before. Maybe I just look like an old friend of yours in the city…?' Nanako repiled skeptically.

"Ah! That's it! You were on some sort of dancing thing ten years ago with Kanami!", Saiwa said with realization, clapping her small, soft hands together lightly. "I was only seven but I still remember you performing on stage with her!"

"Yea...now that I think about it…. I guess I was on stage dancing once. I take it that you're a big fan of Kanami?" Nanako asked with a friendly tone, smiling warmly and genuinely.

"Of course! And Risette too! I heard that she's from here, Inaba, is that true?"

"Yep. She also attended Yasogami High. My 'big bro' went there at the same time as her in his second year while she went on that hiatus. They were pretty close friends too."

"What?! Your brother was friends with Risette?!" Saiwa exclaimed with total shock, her eyes wide in surprise. She pressed the palm of one of her hands down and leaned closer to Nanako, which was met with indifference from Nanako."Does that mean you got to meet her?"

"Yea, I got to meet her plenty of times. We're actually pretty close. And my 'big bro' isn't really my brother. He's just my cousin who lived with me for a year when I was seven. He was literally like a brother to me, so I guess I started calling him my big brother, and the name stuck." Nanako explained nostalgically, recalling the vivid and warm memories of the time spent with her so-called big brother, whether it was ten years ago or more recently, they still had the same special value in Nanako's heart.

"That's amazing! Wow, I'm so envious of you! You got to perform with Kanami, you're close friends with the one and only Risette."She suddenly redirected her attention from Nanako to Miwa. "How about you, Atsui-san? Are you a fan of Kanami and Risette?" Saiwa asked curiously to Miwa.

"Me?" Miwa responded, a bit startled due to being addressed. She had remained quiet for the majority of the conversation, absorbing in facts and information and listening intently. "Personally, I don't really listen to music that much, nor have a interest for idols. But I do enjoy sometimes listening to music from both Kanami and Risette, and Risette being an Inaba native is a plus for me."

"It's true. She may not follow them as intently as me or you, but she still enjoys listening to a good old piece of Risette or Kanami music." Nanako added. She was about to pose another question to Saiwa when the bell indicating the start of the first period rung loudly and the middle aged Ms. Sofue walked into the class. Nanako and Miwa turned from Saiwa, who groaned softly and slightly slouched in her seat, to face the blank but faded whiteboard as history class began.

* * *

Thursday, May 20, 2021 Dojima Residence, Inaba

Yu sat in complete silence in the now desolate kitchen at the wooden dining table, sipping on his mug full of now lukewarm coffee, the bittersweet yet enjoyable flavor of the combination of caffeine, sugar, and milk lingering on his tastebuds. A battered and already open newspaper with tiny light stain peppered across it lay on the table in front of him, but was totally ignored, the conversation he had with Nanako earlier this morning during breakfast distracting him.

" _Yeah, didn't sleep well."_

" _Why not?_

" _Oh...umm..nothing…"_

 _Nothing. My ass. That's obviously a lie._ Yu thought. _Based on past events, I have a pretty good feeling the nightmares that stem from her kidnapping are the ones keeping her up at night. The question is, why would she hide this, from me and Uncle, her own father? Why would she pretend that the mental scars left behind by that horrid incident have healed when in reality they still linger, dealing anguish and terror to her during the dead of night? I thought I understood Nanako, but it's seems there's a deeper underlying motivation for all this that I yet to have understand. The big challenge is getting Nanako to open up to me and spill it._

 _Damn it. I wish I had Mitsurugi-san's ability to draw information from people._ Yu groaned internally while rubbing his forehead with his fingers in a repetitive and circular pattern _He's literally a genius at it, using logic and words to completely destroy any attempt of hiding a certain bit of information. I've seen it in action myself, and it is terrifying how easily he does it._

Suddenly, the familiar ringtone of Yu's cellphone rang out, breaking the heavy silence of the empty Dojima residence. Yu snacted his phone and glanced at the glowing bright screen of his smartphone for the caller ID. Yosuke Hanamura, his trusty partner. Smirking a bit, he answered the call and said, "Hey, Yosuke."

"Yo, dude, you're here! What'cha doing right now?" Yosuke repiled happily, his voice slightly distorted over the phone. In the background, Yu could hear faint traces of bustling conversation involving a variety of different voices, ranging from the high-pitched, energetic voice of a child, to the deep, calm, yet controllable voice of a parent watching over their playing children. Using the limited evidence presented to him and some simple logic, Yu made a split second deduction that Yosuke was in a public place, mostly likely Junes. Probably Junes.

"Just sitting at my dining table, drinking coffee. I trust that you called for a purpose rather than to annoy the shit out of me?", Yu responded sarcastically, tipping his black framed glasses up his nose with a single finger.

"Hey! You know I would never do that!" Yosuke said overdramatically, feigning how wounded he was from that light hearted jab from his best friend. Recovering his normal voice, he proposed. "Anyway, since you're finally here, why don't you drop by Junes, at the old 'special headquarters'? Everyone's here dying to see you, Rise-chan, Naoto-kun, Kanji-kun, Chie, and of course, Yukiko-san. Expect Teddie though, he isn't here."

"He still hasn't come back from the TV world? Even when I returned to Inaba?"

"Yea. It's weird. Though, it makes sense. He's been on edge ever since he detected those weird presences and the Midnight Channel rumors began popping out again. Even though they went away and the Midnight Channel rumors were proven to be a hoax...I guess he's actually taking the role of protecting the TV world seriously for once."

"Speaking on the subject of the TV world, let's not forget the second reason I came back….", Yu said, suddenly adopting a somber tone, his eyes narrowing despite him talking via a cellphone. His grip on the smartphone tightened, the whites of his knuckles gradually becoming more distinct and obvious. "...investigating Marie-chan literal disappearance in thin air"

"Oh right….Marie-chan...look, dude, we're trying as hard as we can, but just can't find a trace of that girl anywhere." Yosuke repiled, his usual cheerful, upbeat voice much more serious with a hint of defeat and exasperation.

"Don't worry. I intend to help you guys investigate, even though I have no official investigative authority, as Inaba is under the jurisdiction of Okina City's Prosecutor Office, not Tokyo's." Yu said reassuringly while drumming his fingers along the old wooden surface of the dining table, "Unless I go through a bunch of procedural bullshit, which is allowed in only very special circumstances, which probably doesn't include this situation."

"That's nice to hear. But forget that for now, we can discuss it later with Dojima-san and Naoto-kun. Right now, let's just have some fun, it's your first day back in a while, partner!" Yosuke exclaimed joyfully, reverting back to his old mood earlier in the conversation.

Yu chuckled reminiscently. "Ok, ok. I'll be there in five. Don't do anything stupid while I'm going there. You don't want Chie-chan to deliver another 'critical hit to the nads'"

"Don't worry. I won't. The pain of Chie's 'critical hits' are enough to convince me otherwise. Anyway, we'll see you there, Yu!"

Yu chuckled lightly again before hanging up on Yosuke. Pocketing his phone into the right pocket of his tight black jeans, he began clearing off the old dining table, folding up the abandoned newspaper into halves repeatedly, and draining the contents of the half-filled mug of now cold coffee down the sink. He grabbed his black leather wallet and car keys left lying on the low table in front of the sleek, new looking, flat screen TV, and headed out the front door.


End file.
